Indeed, the real Billy Price -- Pittsburgh's venerable blue-eyed soul singer -- will perform Saturday on the Harold's patio, a rare Beaver Valley gig for an artist who came into national attention in the 1970s when he recorded and toured for three years with esteemed guitarist Roy Buchanan.

Price will bring to Harold's his quartet -- Jimmy Britton on keys, Eric DeFade on sax, and Dave Dodd on drums -- a more stripped-down ensemble than his eight-piece band.

"It's cool. I've been doing a lot of that this year," Price said. "It gives me a little more space for me to do some things. I play a little more blues and jazz than I normally do."

Price (real surname Pollak) toured nationally and packed local clubs between 1977 and 1990 with his Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band. That band split in 1990, and Price quickly formed the Billy Price Band, which continued to earn the singer accolades.

Geoffrey Himes of the Washington Post wrote "Unlike so many blues revivalists, Price is not an imitation of older, better singers--he's the real thing."

A Blues Revue journalist said in 2009, "Price is a terrific vocalist who deserves to be a bigger star."

In a phone interview Tuesday, Price said he couldn't recall his last Beaver County show, but fondly remembers gigs at the former Morry's Speakeasy in Rochester Township.

Fresh off a trip to San Francisco for his day job as marketing manager for the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, Price was in good spirits, especially after recently hearing a note-for-note version of his unique interpretation of Clarence Carter's "Slip Away" used in the HBO show "Tremé"

"It was an exact replica of what I did on my first album," Price said. "I got online and found the show's musical director and sent him an e-mail saying, 'Look, I'm not interested in litigation, I just want to know how did you happen to find that song?'"

Ten minutes later, the show's producer, David Simon, responded with an e-mail saying he's been a Price fan for 30 years.

Maybe Price's music will appear in future Simon projects.

"I'm happy we made the connection," Price said.

Harold's owner, Hineman, is happy, too, to have booked Price for four shows this year starting Saturday. She said before she was old enough to legally drink, she and her friends used to sneak into the former Decade nightclub in Pittsburgh to get a spot close to the stage to watch Price.

When Price telephoned her back recently to confirm he would play at Harold's, "I almost fainted," Hineman said. "He's a huge legend. This is a dream for me and my friends."

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